A couple months back I blogged about an event at Yivo attacking the Walt and Mearsheimer book, which Marty Peretz promised at the start would be frightening and then filled the bill. As I wrote then, I couldn't listen to all the remarks of panelist Daniel Goldhagen, the author of the book Hitler's Willing Executioners. The son of a Holocaust survivor, he was the most intense of the participants, describing the book as a piece of classic antisemitism, and leaving the impression that Walt and Mearsheimer had opened the door to pogroms.
Well, I just bought the book I Am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl, now four years old, and it includes a piece by Goldhagen that I find of a piece with his comments on that stage.
The piece begins by saying, "I suspect that many Jews who by dint of their work make themselves into potential targets for those who hate Jews" have considered their work's "possible violent consequences." They go through a lot of calculations, including asking, "What precautions can I take?" Goldhagen continues: "After all, it takes only one hate-filled fanatic or lunatic. When I go to Germany–where there is a small minority (but still a large number) of such people among an otherwise unthreatening and, in large measure, welcoming majority–full-time security is necessary, and reassuring."
